The Cloud Revolution
Cloud computing is a revolution triggered by Information and communication technologies.
Internet existed for decades. Cloud is a rebirth of internet with advancement in computing , storage and connectivity technologies
The core of cloud is how compute, storage and network components are virtualised. The compute provides ability to harness the power of multiple cpus on demand to run any kind of demanding workloads leading to supoer computers to quantum computers.
Storage virtualization enables infinitely scalable storage capacity systems over the internet Network virtualization enables high speed connectivity across the globe enabling low latency and high throughput applications scale.
All of these components are packaged and called as a Data Center. Today organizations are able to build own data centers or co locate with other organisation's Data centers to reduce latency and costs.
This enables efficient usage and sharing of pool of resources to anyone who requires it.
Cost savings is often associated with cloud computing, but increasingly, companies consider ability to react to market demands to meet the customer needs as the cloud’s advantage.
Traditionally the challenge has been building enterprise scale infrastructure for companies of any size to build and test and sell products. The cloud has transformed this challenge into an innovation hub. Today anyone can build product for any market and sell from the comfort of own home.
This enables products and ideas to reach the right audience and enables revenue recognition.
So cloud is a service model, which can be categorised as
- Software as a service (SaaS)
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
- Platform as a service (PaaS)
Saas
In the SaaS model, companies use software applications on demand over the Internet. often the web-based software with pay as you go model. the main advantage is near zero cost on infrastructure or technology , and predictable, recurring operational costs.
IaaS
in this model, companies outsource the responsibility and maintenance for infrastructure like servers, storage, networks, load balancers, firewalls, IP addresses etc..., to an external cloud provider. this service is offered in four different ways:
- Private cloud, wherein a specific number of physical servers and components are dedicated to one customer. This is the most expensive service
- Dedicated hosting, wherein a company rents physical servers on demand. The cost and number of servers align with the requirements as they arise.
- Hybrid hosting, provider has both physical servers and virtual server instances on demand to reduce costs and increase flexibility.
- Cloud hosting, virtual server instances are rented on demand, moslty on an hourly basis.
PaaS
PaaS - the platform to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure. Developers get access to all of the tools, programming languages, and APIs needed to create their application in the cloud. Allowing developers to focus on the features and functionality of the product itself shortens the time to market.
Cloud Types
Cloud computing services are deployed via Private, Public, or Hybrid modes. The type of cloud depends on a company’s product or service requirements.
Private Cloud
Private clouds are mostly internal to a large organisation . A organisation can control and customise to fit its needs. Many enterprises are migrating their data centres to private clouds, so the focus can be more on business applications , research and development, analytics etc...
In a private cloud, services are within the organisation's data centre and to internal users. This model allows the management, control, and security found in local physical data centres. It provides exclusive access and control over their cloud resources. In this model organisations build a private cloud, in their own data centres, making it the most expensive.
Public
In a public cloud, a provider rents space to many organisations or tenants. The provider offers everything from system resources to the security and maintenance of a company’s portion of the cloud.
Public clouds enable organisations to host, deploy and use applications built on their own or built from other organisations for seamless integration of proprietary and opensource software. Public cloud services can be availed on demand, hourly/monthly/quarterly/or , though long-term commitments the use.
Hybrid
A hybrid cloud combines advantages of both private and public clouds, For an example, a company can run mission-critical applications or sensitive applications in a private cloud and convert to the public cloud and run few or more third-party applications on the public cloud. This is ideal for organisations in highly regulated industries